


Rainbow

by Luthien



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-07-29
Updated: 2007-07-29
Packaged: 2017-10-14 18:45:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/152314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luthien/pseuds/Luthien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seven linked John/Rodney drabbles, based on the colours of the rainbow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rainbow

_1\. Red - John_

The fruit's red like an apple. Water fruit, the locals call it. Rodney takes a bite and the juice cascades down his chin. His tongue flicks out, licking sticky skin in long, slow strokes, and John... turns away, swallowing, without knowing quite why.

Or knowing exactly why. Throat parched, face hot and red as the fruit itself, John turns back just as Rodney takes another bite, closing his eyes in pleasure, oblivious to the state John's in.

Or not so oblivious. Rodney's looking straight at him now, holding out a fruit. Offering.

John takes it with an almost steady hand.

  


_2\. Orange - Rodney_

Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clement's...

Rodney loved that rhyme when he was little, chanting it endlessly. He won the game that went with the rhyme, of course, at April Bingham's fifth birthday party, grinning victoriously through a mouthful of prize candy until the lemon sherbet stopped grin and rhyme - and, almost, everything else.

Rodney plays other, far different, games now. He catches a look in Sheppard's eye sometimes, catches it and holds it longer than he should. And wonders if this prize will turn out to be something else that he can never have again.

  


_3\. Yellow - John_

Rodney doesn't look like a fairytale princess. The cave he's in isn't anything like a castle. And the vine that's grown up outside and trapped him there is nothing like a briar rose. It's yellow, for one thing, and growing so fast it's all John can do to hack through each deadly golden tendril before it's replaced by more.

Afterwards, John remembers pulling Rodney out, but he has no idea when that turned into kissing him, desperate, like it's going to break some kind of spell.

As they escape through the stargate, John thinks maybe they've both been set free.

  


_4\. Green - Rodney_

Katie Brown's quarters are covered in plants, bright green pocket-sized ones as cute as she is. Rodney only spent one night there, curled awkwardly together in bed, her small cold feet pressed into his knees.

Rodney opens his eyes to the sight of a tall ungainly plant, spiky on top and more brown than green, pressed into Sheppard's hands weeks ago by the Melmarnans for reasons that remain obscure. Arms come around him from behind, drawing him close, everything fitting together easily, perfectly, from the warm breath on his neck to the feet tangling together below.

It's their first morning.

  


_5\. Blue - John_

It began at his graduation ceremony. A real officer in dress blues at last, so many eyes on him, so many expectations. His tie grew tighter as the day wore on. Finally he disappeared into the men's room and dragged the tie askew before it choked him.

~

He pulls at his tie too many times before the funeral, and only realises it's crooked as he rips the damned thing off. Rodney's slumped beside him, grey-faced and still fully dressed. John pulls off Rodney's tie and murmurs, "No one's looking now. Stop."

Rodney's hand finds his and something loosens inside John.

  


_6\. Indigo - Rodney_

There's a pair of jeans lying over the end of the hotel bed. Men's jeans, but they're not his. Rodney knows they're a faded blue when you look at them up close, but in this light their colour is deeper, harder to determine. Indigo.

Indigo isn't a proper colour. It isn't anything real. It's just a point on the way between blue and purple.

Sheppard brushes against him, damp from the shower, and whispers something in Rodney's ear. Rodney shivers.

Maybe this is just a point on the way. Maybe they'll stop here awhile. Or maybe they've already arrived.

  


_7\. Violet - John_

There comes a moment during twilight on Atlantis when the sky turns violet and mysterious over the water. It's pretty, if you like that sort of thing, but John is tense. In this light a pilot's senses start to fail him, can even betray. It's the perfect time for a surprise attack, when the end is in sight.

Rodney calls out from beyond the door, demanding to know where John is. He sounds just as he always does and suddenly everything is easy.

John smiles and turns his back on sea and sky and uncertainty, letting night fall without him.


End file.
